SIERRA WATCH SEEKS FIELD DIRECTOR FOR TAHOE CONSERVATION CAMPAIGNS

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Tahoe City, Calif. − Sierra Watch seeks a passionate conservation advocate to recruit and mobilize public support for our work to keep Tahoe Truckee True.

Founded in 2001, Sierra Watch has built a remarkable record in Sierra conservation, spearheading the long-term effort to protect Tahoe’s Martis Valley, playing the lead role in defending Donner Summit, and turning back Vegas-style development in Olympic Valley (formerly Squaw Valley).

The position of Sierra Watch Field Director is a unique opportunity to engage public support in our ongoing success, to be a leader in Tahoe conservation, and to work where you play.  Key strategies include grassroots outreach and online engagement.

The ideal candidate has one to two years professional organizing or equivalent experience and has demonstrated leadership in setting priorities and following through. 

The position demands excellent communications skills; passion for the Sierra Nevada is a must; a sense of humor is encouraged. 

Salary DOE with health benefits.  Location is North Lake Tahoe, California.

To Apply

Send a cover letter, resume, writing/media sample, and references to:

            Field Director Search

            hiring@sierrawatch.org

Sierra Watch Seeks Field Manager for Tahoe Conservation Campaigns

Sierra Watch seeks a passionate conservation advocate to recruit and mobilize public support for our work to keep Tahoe Truckee True.

Founded in 2001, Sierra Watch has built a remarkable record in Sierra conservation, spearheading the long-term effort to protect Tahoe’s Martis Valley, playing the lead role in defending Donner Summit, and turning back a reckless scheme in Olympic Valley (formerly Squaw Valley) to transform Tahoe with highrises and indoor waterpark.

The position of Sierra Watch Field Manager is a unique opportunity to engage public support in our ongoing success, to be a leader in Tahoe conservation, and to work where you play.  Key strategies include grassroots outreach and online engagement.

The ideal candidate has one-two years professional organizing or equivalent experience and has demonstrated entrepreneurial leadership in setting priorities and following through. 

The position demands excellent communications skills.  A passion for the Sierra Nevada is a must; a sense of humor is encouraged. 

Salary DOE with health benefits.  Location is North Lake Tahoe, California.

To Apply

Send a cover letter, resume, writing/media sample, and references to:

Field Manager Search

hiring@sierrawatch.org

Position is open until filled.  Please, no drop-ins.

 

For more information, visit:

 sierrawatch.org

Tahoe Truckee True Outreach

Great news: More protection for Tahoe!

This summer Sierra Watch scored a major win for Tahoe. That victory just got better:

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Contact: Tom Mooers; (530) 265-2849 x200

September 30, 2021

SIERRA WATCH SECURES COURT PRECEDENT TO PROTECT LAKE TAHOE

Sacramento, Calif. – The California Third District Court of Appeals took action last week that could have major implications for new development proposed in the Tahoe Sierra. The court granted Sierra Watch’s request for partial publication of its August decisions over Alterra Mountain Company’s proposed development in North Tahoe, thereby securing the conservationists’ win as legal precedent.

Pictured: Lake Tahoe & Olympic Valley from Palisades Tahoe on Monday

“Establishing our recent victory as citable law helps protect Tahoe from harmful development proposals,” says Tom Mooers, Executive Director of Sierra Watch, “And it’s another great example of how we work to stand up for our mountain values.”

For more than ten years, Sierra Watch has led a grassroots effort to stop Alterra Mountain Company’s proposal to remake North Tahoe with a series of highrises and an indoor waterpark. Of particular importance is the future of Lake Tahoe and ongoing efforts to protect its clarity. 

For decades, development in the Tahoe Basin—as defined as the watershed of Lake Tahoe—has been highly regulated, monitored by the bi-state Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to ensure that new projects do not harm the lake’s famously blue waters.

Projects just outside the Tahoe Basin, however, do not fall under that jurisdiction—even though they can have a major impact on the lake.

In the case of Alterra Mountain Company’s proposed development in the valley formerly known as Squaw, the project is proposed for land outside the Tahoe Basin. Because snowmelt in the valley does not flow into the lake but, instead, into the Truckee River, land use decision-making authority falls exclusively to Placer County—not the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

Traffic from Alterra’s proposed development, however, would pour into the Tahoe Basin, adding more than 1,000 new daily car trips to Tahoe’s traffic—each car contributing the pollutants which, in turn, would cloud the lake and rob it of its clarity.

In its case against Alterra’s erstwhile project, Sierra Watch argued that the California Environmental Quality Act required vigorous review of potential impacts on the lake. 

“Just like what your next door neighbor does on his or her property can impact your home, development next door to Tahoe can be destructive to the lake,” says Mooers of Sierra Watch. 

Alterra countered that there was no need to review potential impacts because the project “did not propose development in the Tahoe Basin.”

The court agreed with Sierra Watch, writing in its decision, “Lake Tahoe is a unique and significant environmental resource” that merits special emphasis in environmental review; and review must “determine whether the project’s impacts on Lake Tahoe and the basin were potentially significant—not simply summarize, and then declare inapplicable, another agency’s framework for evaluating these types of issues.”

The court’s decision in favor of Sierra Watch in August was a major milestone in the ongoing, ten-year, grassroots effort to turn back Alterra’s proposed development and Keep Tahoe True. It means that Alterra can’t move forward with its proposal without addressing impacts on Tahoe. The court’s latest action—publication of the decision—extends that victory to inform future proposals as well.

“The decision against Alterra’s proposed development helps protect Tahoe now,” says Mooers. “Establishing it as precedent helps protect Tahoe in the future.”

Squaw Valley’s name changes. Our commitment does not.

Alterra announced the new name for Squaw Valley: Palisades Tahoe.

Ironically, they seek to cash in on the Tahoe brand as they threaten at the same time the very values that make Tahoe special in the first place.

Our commitment to this awesome place remains unchanged.

More below:

 

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Contact: Tom Mooers; (530) 265-2849 x200

August 24, 2021

SQUAW VALLEY SKI RESORT ANNOUNCES NEW NAME: PALISADES TAHOE

Resort owners Alterra Mountain Co. abandoning old name – but clinging to old development plans for iconic Tahoe destination

 

Olympic Valley, Calif. — The owners of the Tahoe ski mountain known as Squaw Valley announced today a new name for the famed resort: Tahoe Palisades.

The new name acknowledges the centrality of Lake Tahoe to the resort’s mountain region. But, according to Sierra conservationists, new development proposed for the valley threatens Tahoe values and the clarity of the lake.

Squaw Valley winter Tahoe Truckee True

Pictured: Palisades Tahoe in winter

“We welcome the new name as a reminder that the valley is part of the broader Tahoe region,” said Tom Mooers of Sierra Watch. “And we’ll keep working to defend the place no matter what it’s called.” 

Resort owners Alterra Mountain Company, based in Denver, have sought to remake the Tahoe-Truckee region with development of a size, scale, and scope the Sierra has never seen. Plans for the valley include a series of high-rise condo hotels, a 90,000 square-foot indoor waterparkas wide as a Walmart and nearly three times as tall, and a rollercoaster. 

Sierra Watch, seeking to protect Tahoe from Alterra, has built a grassroots movement to Keep Squaw True (now Tahoe Truckee True). Over the last ten years, the conservation non-profit has engaged thousands of volunteers, produced a movie, and challenged development approvals in court.

Keep Squaw True flashmob

Pictured: Tahoe locals in 2017

Last month, California’s Third District Court of Appeals sided with Sierra Watch and dealt a staggering blow to Alterra’s plans. A panel of three Justices found that project approvals ignored important development impacts, essentially sending Alterra back to the drawing board. 

A key issue to the court is highlighted by the resort’s new name: impacts on Tahoe and the lake’s famous clarity. Sierra Watch argued that the County’s environmental review downplayed impacts on the lakeespecially how traffic from the new development would have added the pollutants that are steadily robbing the lake of its clarity. 

The court agreed, ruling that “(T)he final EIR still never discussed the importance of Lake Tahoe or its current condition.”

Officials at Alterra acknowledged the setback but expressed ongoing commitment to their erstwhile project.

Palisades Tahoe Logo

Pictured: Palisades Tahoe Logo

So, as Alterra seeks to cash in on the Tahoe brand with its new name for Squaw Valley, conservationists further their commitment to protecting Tahoe itself.

Sierra Watch is offering a new design of its ubiquitous purple stickers; they now read Tahoe Truckee True, furthering the notion that what is known as Squaw Valley is part of a broader mountain region.

“We appreciate Alterra’s willingness to re-consider the history of what we’ve known as Squaw Valley,” says Tom Mooers, Executive Director of Sierra Watch. “And we’re committed to convincing them to join us in re-imagining its future with a collaborative effort to keep Tahoe Truckee True.”

We Won in Squaw Valley! Now What?

Sierra Watch prevailed in court last month, marking a major victory in our ongoing commitment to defend Tahoe’s Squaw Valley from reckless development.

Tahoe Truckee True in the News
So, now what?

Technically, the appellate court ruled that the matter be sent back to the trial court with specific instructions to grant our petition for writ of mandate and spell out how Placer County should comply with state law.

Essentially, the ball is in their court; would-be developers Alterra Mountain Company have three basic options:

1) try to appeal the court’s decision to the California Supreme Court;
2) push the same failed project through a new public planning process; or
3) come to the table and seek a collaborative resolution.

Their first option is to ask the California Supreme Court to review the appellate court’s decision. According to our legal experts, it is unlikely that the Supreme Court would agree to do so—but possible. If Alterra seeks another day in court, Sierra Watch will be there to greet them.

Alterra’s second option would be to try again—go back through another public process to seek another round of entitlements for its proposed development. But that could be a long, long road.

Sierra Watch in the News
In its decision, the appellate court agreed with Sierra Watch on our basic challenge: Placer County’s 2016 approvals were based on inadequate environmental review. And the court spelled out where the review fell short: in assessing the project’s impacts on Lake Tahoe, fire danger and evacuation, noise, and traffic.

Alterra and Placer County could use the decision as a road map, marking what actions they would have to take to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act—with a new Environmental Impact Report, opportunities for us to comment, public hearings, and, potentially, more legal challenges.

If you imagine Alterra’s attempts to seek entitlements as an elaborate, ten-year board game, they’re not quite back to square one. But they’re likely a lot closer to the start than to the finish.

Meanwhile, times have changed and the road to development has only gotten steeper. All of the regional problems we pointed out at the County’s public hearings in 2016 have, regrettably, gotten worse.

Lake Tahoe continues to suffer a steady loss of clarity. In 2015, you could see 73.1 feet into clear waters; last year only 62.9 feet.

If you’re Alterra, do you really want to stand up in a public hearing and pretend again, like they did in 2016, that their massive development is no threat to the multi-generational effort to Keep Tahoe Blue?

The risk of catastrophic wildfire has grown. California keeps learning hard lessons about allowing too much development in places where there are not enough ways to evacuate.

If you’re Alterra, do you really want to stand under our smoky skies and tell everyone: no problem? That a projected evacuation time of more than ten hours—to travel less than three miles out of Squaw Valley and onto a gridlocked Highway 89—poses no threat to public safety? That we can just, as they argued before, “shelter in place” on a golf course? That Placer County should roll the dice on wildfire when the stakes are human lives and the jackpot goes to Alterra?

The drought is drying up our watersheds. The Sierra snowpack at the end of last winter was at 0% of normal. Do you want to put on your Alterra hat and stand in the empty streambed of Squaw Creek—bone dry right now—and say there’s enough water for a waterpark?

Alterra’s project would be bad for traffic—adding 3,000 new daily car trips to Tahoe’s traffic mess.

Alterra’s project would be bad for workforce housing—adding 500 employees, with no place to live, to the long list of working families looking for a home.

Alterra’s project would even be bad for winter—adding 40,000 metric tons of CO2, the pollutants that drive climate change, more than 30 times the regulatory threshold of significance.

Would you really want to stand up and try justifying the traffic, the fire danger, and the pollution? For what? Highrises, a waterpark, and roller coasters? If you were a member of the Placer County Board of Supervisors, how could you pretend to agree?

But there is a third option. Alterra could come to the table, end ten years of conflict, and seek a collaborative resolution. Simply sit down and work together on development that, instead of making everything worse, would respect our shared mountain values.

Whichever route Alterra chooses, Sierra Watch will be ready.

We’ll stand up in court again if we have to. We’ll mobilize our growing grassroots movement to turn out for public hearings if need be. And we’ll join a positive planning effort—in good faith, with a true spirit of collaboration.

In the meantime, we celebrate the fact that we have once again proved we can work together to protect the places we love. That Tahoe has been spared from a disaster of reckless development. That there is no indoor waterpark in Squaw Valley.

We appreciate the role we’re playing in writing one of the great chapters in the proud history of Sierra conservation.

And we move forward with confidence, understanding that our commitment is rooted in our shared love of the mountains. A love that is as timeless, almost, as the mountains themselves.

Onward!

Great news from court: Sierra Watch wins Squaw Valley court cases!

As you can see in the press release below, we won!

Thanks, as always, for standing with us as we defend our mountain values.

Onward!

 

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Contact: Tom Mooers; (530) 265-2849 x200

August 24, 2021

TAHOE CONSERVATIONISTS SCORE COURT VICTORY OVER SQUAW VALLEY DEVELOPMENT

Sacramento, Calif. – In a sweeping victory for Tahoe conservationists, California’s Third District Court of Appeals sided with Sierra Watch and dealt a staggering blow to development plans for Squaw Valley.

“Today’s decision marks a major milestone in the multi-generational commitment to conservation in the Sierra Nevada,” says Tom Mooers, Executive Director of the plaintiff group, Sierra Watch. “And it’s a great example of how we can work together to protect the places we love.” 

Squaw Valley

Pictured: Squaw Valley

A panel of three Justices based their decision on the project’s impacts on Lake Tahoe, fire danger, noise, and traffic. The ruling reverses a 2018 trial court finding and, essentially, sends the erstwhile developer, Alterra Mountain Company, back to the drawing board. 

It’s a major victory for conservationists in their ten-year struggle to stop massive development from transforming Tahoe. Alterra had sought to remake the region with a series of high-rise condo hotels, a 90,000 square-foot indoor waterparkas wide as a Walmart and nearly three times as tall, and a rollercoaster. 

The project, as proposed in 2015, would have taken 25 years to construct and added thousands of car trips to Tahoe’s crowded roads. 

“Alterra was hell-bent on bringing Vegas-style excess to the mountains of Tahoe,” says Mooers of Sierra Watch. “It was a direct threat to everything we love about the Sierra.”

The battle began when KSL Capital Partners purchased Squaw Valley in 2010, citing the “great growth potential” of its new real estate asset. In 2015, the private equity firm made its plans public, asking Placer County to entitle development of a size, scale, and scope the region has never seen.

The conservation non-profit Sierra Watch responded by building a grassroots movement to turn back the project and Keep Squaw True. Thousands of volunteers got involved. Hundreds spoke up at public hearings.

Keep Squaw True Supporters

Pictured: Tahoe locals in 2017

In November of 2016, in spite of overwhelming opposition, the Placer County Board of Supervisors voted to approve the project by a 4-1 votewith the only ‘no’ vote coming from the Supervisor who represented Tahoe and Squaw Valley. 

A month later, Sierra Watch filed its initial legal challenges, pointing out that Placer County’s approvals violated state law. Today, the court agreed.

The California Environmental Quality Act, better known as CEQA, requires Placer County to research and write an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to fully assess and disclose the negative impacts the new development would have on Squaw Valley and the Tahoe Sierra, and to lessen those impacts to the extent feasible.

The court, however, ruled that Placer County’s review was “inadequate”, taking issue with the the County’s disclosure and mitigation of the impacts on Lake Tahoe, fire danger, noise, and traffic.

California maintains a longstanding commitment to maintaining the clarity of Tahoe’s famously blue waters. CEQA even expressly designates the Tahoe Basin as an area of “Statewide, Regional, or Areawide Significance.” But, Sierra Watch argued, the County’s environmental review downplayed the impacts on the lakeespecially how traffic from the new development would have added the pollutants that are steadily robbing the lake of its clarity. 

The court agreed, ruling that “(T)he final EIR still never discussed the importance of Lake Tahoe or its current condition.”

The threat of catastrophic wildfire hangs over every mountain community in the Sierra Nevada. Even today, smoke clouds the skies over Squaw Valley, and one of the routes out of the Tahoe Basin, Highway 50, is closed due to the Caldor fire.

Smoke in Tahoe Squaw Valley

Pictured: Squaw Valley under smoky skies, Aug. 24, 2021

Yet Alterra’s development is proposed for a “very high fire hazard severity zone” with only one way out. If the project were built, it would take an estimated 10 hours and 40 minutes just to travel three miles out of the valley—and onto Highway 89, already at gridlock on crowded summer days. The court found that even this drastic figure was a substantial underestimation of evacuation times.

In oral arguments in July, Alterra’s lawyers acknowledged the danger, claiming residents and visitors could just “shelter in place” and that the EIR had adequately assessed the issue of evacuation.

The court, however, found otherwise, ruling that “(T)he EIR’s misleading estimation of evacuation times is still that–a misleading estimation of evacuation times that prevented informed decisionmaking. We find the EIR inadequate in this respect as a result.”

The court also found fault with environmental review of noise impacts and traffic mitigation.

Sierra Watch also challenged Placer County’s approval under California’s good governance law, the Brown Act. And, in a parallel decision, the court sided, once again, with Sierra Watch.

The Brown Act requires a governing body to “post an agenda containing a brief general description of each item of business to be transacted or discussed at the meeting” and, also, that key documents relevant to important decisions be made “available for public inspection.”

In the case of its Squaw Valley development and its impact on Lake Tahoe, Sierra Watch argued, Placer County officials did neither. Instead, the County negotiated, in secret, a last-minute deal with developers. 

That deal was not part of any agenda. Nor was it made “available for public inspection”. The County argued that it did make the last-minute documents available to the public—by putting a memo in a filing cabinet the night before the hearing in a locked office building.

“The question for us, then,” writes the court in a separate ruling, “is whether the memorandum was ‘available for public inspection . . . at th[at] time.’ It was not. No document at the County clerk’s office, after all, was ‘available for public inspection’ at 5:40 p.m. on November 14, 2016 — a time when the clerk’s office was closed.”

The court also held that the Board’s agenda for the meeting was, according to the decision, “inaccurate and misleading.”

Sierra Watch is represented by Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP, a public interest law firm specializing in government, land use, renewable energy, and environmental law.

“We’re proud to play our role in helping Sierra Watch hold officials accountable to the law and protect California’s invaluable natural resources,” says Amy Bricker, an attorney at the firm.

Squaw Valley winter Tahoe Truckee True

Pictured: Squaw Valley in Winter

Looking ahead, Alterra could seek a re-hearing; they could appeal to the California Supreme Court.

Meantime, conservationists are celebrating their victory and re-committing themselves to what, so far, has been a ten-year effort.

“This is great news for Tahoe and everyone who has stood with us to defend our mountain values,” says Mooers of Sierra Watch. “But our goal was never to win a lawsuit. Our goal has always been to protect our Sierra resources for future generations.”

“And we feel like we’re just getting started.” 

Strategic Assessment: Sierra Watch Releases Report on White Wolf Development Project

Massive development threatens everything we love about the Tahoe Sierra. And now there’s a new project in town.

Today we released our Sierra Watch White Wolf Strategic Assessment, a detailed look at proposed development on the White Wolf property between Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley – and what it would mean to our mountains.

There’s more in the release below, and you can find the full report at: https://www.sierrawatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Sierra-Watch-White-Wolf-Strategic-Assessment-July-2021.pdf

This is how we do it; this is how we stand up for our Sierra and turn development threats into conservation opportunities. Thanks for standing with us.

 

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Contact: Tom Mooers, Sierra Watch: (530) 265-2849 x200

For immediate release:

 

July 27, 2021

SIERRA WATCH RELEASES ASSESSMENT OF PROPOSED TAHOE DEVELOPMENT

Conservationists: White Wolf resort presents clear threat to Tahoe wilderness and mountain values

 

Tahoe City, Calif. – Sierra Watch today issued a detailed assessment of new development proposed for the 275-acre White Wolf property between Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows in the Tahoe Sierra, including land designated for National Wilderness.

“The findings of our assessment are clear,” said Tom Mooers, Sierra Watch Executive Director.  “The iconic White Wolf property is an important part of our Tahoe landscape, and proposed development is a threat to our shared mountain values.”

White Wolf Property Today

White Wolf: proposed for gated subdivision

The proposed resort is the latest in a string of massive development proposals in the North Tahoe region.  Nearby, Alterra Mountain Company proposes to transform Squaw Valley with a series of highrises and an indoor waterpark.  To the east, Sierra Pacific Industries proposes new development in the forests above Martis Valley.

On the White Wolf property, gated subdivisions would spread from Alpine Meadows Road north towards Squaw Valley and west to the Granite Chief Wilderness Area.  New development would include single-family custom home lots, new roads and parking lots, two private ski lifts, equestrian facilities, and tennis courts.

White Wolf Proposed Subdivision

White Wolf: proposed lots and development

Sierra Watch engaged experts in planning, law, biological resources, and wildfire safety to research and compile the assessment, seeking to understand the values at stake and potential impacts of the project.

Their review reveals a number of significant issues and potential impacts, including:

  • Development in land designated for National Wilderness;
  • Degradation of the wilderness experience in existing Granite Chief Wilderness;
  • Deterioration of the popular Five Lakes Trail;
  • Destruction of regional scenic values;
  • Dangers to public safety, including the threats of both wildfire and avalanche; and
  • Damage to biological resources, including potential endangered species habitat.

According to the report, “the White Wolf project proposes roads, commercial enterprise, and structures” on land designated for protection as National Wilderness when then-President Ronald Reagan signed the California Wilderness Act of 1984 into law.

“Wilderness protection is a bold declaration of American values,” says Mooers of Sierra Watch.  “And the White Wolf proposal is a direct threat to the national commitment to our natural heritage.”

5 Lakes and Granite Chief Wilderness

Pictured: Granite Chief National Wilderness

To read the full 31-page report, visit: https://www.sierrawatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Sierra-Watch-White-Wolf-Strategic-Assessment-July-2021.pdf

The detailed document also establishes a set of Planning Principles designed to encourage responsible land use decision-making:

  1. Honor and implement the national commitment to lands designated for protection as part of the Granite Chief Wilderness.
  2. Protect the Five Lakes Trail as an important regional asset and unique outdoor experience.
  3. Ensure that new development does not degrade or overwhelm existing infrastructure.
  4. Acknowledge the growing danger of wildfire and protect the health and safety of new and existing residents.
  5. Protect lives and property from avalanche danger.
  6. Protect the biological resources of the White Wolf property and habitat value of the surrounding area.
  7. Process any application for development with full public involvement, thorough environmental assessment, and adherence to existing law.

Landowner Troy Caldwell filed an initial application for the development in 2015, seeking entitlements and asking to rezone most of the property; all but roughly three of the property’s 275 acres are currently zoned either Open Space or Forest.

Placer County is currently drafting an Environmental Impact Review, the next step in the public planning process for the proposed project.

“The goal of our assessment is to increase awareness about what’s at stake and encourage public engagement,” says Mooers of Sierra Watch.  “One thing we’ve learned as we stand up to defend our mountain values is that the more people get involved, the more likely we are to secure a conservation outcome – for ourselves and for generations to come.”

For more information, visit: https://www.sierrawatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Sierra-Watch-White-Wolf-Strategic-Assessment-July-2021.pdf

 

About Sierra Watch

Sierra Watch works to protect great places in the Sierra Nevada. Founded in 2001, the Nevada City based non-profit has built a remarkable track record in land preservation in Tahoe’s Martis Valley, on Donner Summit, in Squaw Valley, and for other treasured Sierra landscapes.  For more information, visit www.sierrawatch.org.

Tahoe on Trial July 21/How to Watch

Sierra Watch will be standing up in court on July 21st to defend Tahoe from Alterra’s reckless Squaw Valley development – and you can watch!

The court is conducting oral arguments by video conference, and they’ve shared instructions on how to log on to their BlueJeans Events conferencing application.

WHAT:

Oral arguments before the Third District Court of Appeals in Sierra Watch’s two challenges of Alterra Mountain Company’s proposed development in Tahoe’s Squaw Valley.

WHEN:

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

2:00-4:00 p.m. Pacific Time

HOW:

The public is invited to join the proceedings online through a web browser on the BlueJeans Events app –

https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/live-event/sgtbqesh

Or by phone –

+1 (415) 466-7000 (US) / PIN: 4619394 #

WHY:

This is an important milestone in the ongoing effort — ten years and counting — to keep Tahoe Truckee True.

Alterra Mountain Company seeks to remake Tahoe with development of a size and scope the region has never seen.  Development would include a series of high-rise condo hotels and a massive indoor waterpark. 

After the Placer County Board of Supervisors approved Alterra’s proposed development in 2016, Sierra Watch initiated two public interest court challenges to the approvals: one based on state planning law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); the other based on violations of California’s Brown Act.

Sierra Watch’s CEQA challenge is based on decision-makers’ failure to assess the proposed development’s impact on key Tahoe issues like the lake’s clarity, fire safety, and traffic.

Sierra Watch’s second case is based on the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, challenging Placer County’s lack of public notice for a last-minute deal to avoid a lawsuit by the California Attorney General, negotiated in secret and announced the same day the project was approved.

The Brown Act challenge is first on the docket, to be followed by the CEQA challenge.  The court will release its decisions within 90 days of the close of the hearings.

The arguments will be brief and, likely, shaped by questions from the bench.  So the Sierra Watch legal team won’t be able to address every way in which Alterra’s proposal threatens everything we love about our mountains. 

For more detailed arguments, check out Sierra Watch’s legal briefs: https://www.sierrawatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Verified-Petition-for-Writ-of-Mandate-and-Complaint-for-Injunctive-Relief_KEEP-SQUAW-TRUE.pdf

And for more context on the Sierra Watch effort to keep Tahoe Truckee True, check out our Ten Year Timeline and The Movie to Keep Tahoe True.

Defend our mountains. Double your money.

Sierra Watch

You know what’s great about our bumper stickers?  They work!

For 20 years, Sierra Watch has been working to Save Martis Valley – establishing a bold vision for conservation, day by day, parcel by parcel.

Save Martis Valley, Martis Peak

Pictured: Martis Peak looking toward Lake Tahoe

When Donner was threatened by a reckless proposal to subdivide the summit, Sierra Watch took the lead to secure a better outcome and Save Donner Summit

And in Squaw Valley, we are keeping Tahoe Truckee True, turning back Alterra’s plans to transform Tahoe with highrise condo/hotels, a roller coaster, and a massive indoor waterpark.

It’s a great time to be a part of our ongoing success because your donation will be doubled.  One of your fellow Sierra Watch supporters has issued another challenge grant – pledging to match all contributions, up to a total of $50,000.

Click here to support Sierra Watch as we turn misguided development threats into lasting conservation victories – and double your money:

https://www.sierrawatch.org/donate/

 

Onward!

– Tom

P.S. If you’ve already given – Thanks!  Maybe you could forward this message to someone you know who loves our mountains and will stand with us to protect them.

 

 

 

 

Squaw Valley: The Name and Proposed Waterpark Remain the Same

Hopefully you saw our April 1 post, the fake press release to remind us how ridiculous Alterra Mountain Company’s plans for Squaw Valley truly are.

No, they are not actually renaming Squaw Valley ‘Waterpark Valley USA!’ (at least as far as we know).

But they did actually claim, in public, that “there is nothing to do here in summer.”

They really do want to build a ten-story indoor waterpark – with the tallest waterslide in North America, along with a series of highrise condo hotels. 

And they even claimed that John Muir would think that’s a good thing.

It’s a dark vision of reckless development that we wish were just a joke.  But is a real-life threat to everything we love about Tahoe.

For ten years, all that’s stood between our mountains and 30 years of development is Sierra Watch and our work to keep Tahoe Truckee True.

It’s an epic story of how we work together to protect our values – on April 1 and every other day of the year.

Squaw Valley development

Pictured: Grassroots supporters standing against overdevelopment in Squaw Valley!

To learn more about Sierra Watch’s commitment to responsible development in Squaw Valley, watch The Movie to Keep Tahoe True: https://youtu.be/Q_RdEW1IOMY

Stand with Sierra Watch and sign the Tahoe Truckee True petition today: https://sierrawatch.org/tahoe-truckee-true/action/

And you can read our announcement in support of finding a name for Squaw Valley that respects our shared history and everyone that comes to the valley for recreation, as well as the switch to our updated Tahoe Truckee True campaign: https://sierrawatch.org/tahoe-truckee-true/name-change/

Lastly, if you think there is nothing to do in the North Lake Tahoe-Truckee Region in the summer, maybe try going for a swim in Lake Tahoe – it’s one of the best outdoor waterparks you’ll ever find.